Pro Skateboarder Lauren Perkins Has a Thrill for Danger - page 3

By Jeff Ferrantino on January 31, 2006

Being one of the greater skateboarders in the world has certainly provided Perkins with her fair share of perks. A few years ago, her team manager at Volcom landed her the role of a stunt double for the Warner Brothers film "Grind." Her first acting part was not an easy experience she says.

"I get there and the girl has really blonde hair, so they had to put my hair in this really, really thick gel to get it back so it wouldn't come out of the wig," explains Perkins, who admits to having really thick hair. "It was a really cool experience, but it was tough."

She has also appeared in a commercial and landed a speaking role in the Disney film "MVP 2: Most Vertical Primate." She says she wouldn't mind hitting the big screen more sometime in the future.

"I love it," says Perkins, who was also the first female skateboarder to ever appear on the cover of SG Magazine. "I think it's so much fun. Anytime I get the opportunity for those types of things, I just get so excited because it's so different."

These days, Perkins is hard at work, preparing for the 2006 circuit. Next week, she'll depart for Australia for the Globe World Cup, one of her favorite events each year. She attempts to eat healthy, but "that doesn't always happen," she says. She also trains at least twice a week at the gym in order to keep her stamina up for events.

"Skating is unlike any other sport," she says. "Regular sports, you can go to the gym and work out and that really, really improves your abilities. With skating, a lot of it actually has to do with skating. Being on the board. Getting on the board. And getting used to it."

That is where her personal trainer, Scot Prohaska, comes in.

"He's awesome," she says of Prohaska. "He's worked out with a lot of pro athletes over the years. I have a contest coming up, so I'm going to be training and learning new tricks for that. Right before a contest you are like, 'Ok, I'm going to learn these tricks and have a fresh bag of tricks when I go.' "

Even when she doesn't have a contest on the horizon, Perkins says that she attempts to skate every day.

"Yesterday my friend and I went up to L.A., parked my truck in a parking lot, and we skated around the city all day," she says. "It was so much fun.

"Lately, I've been going street skating and skating at Volcom, because I have a key to their private skate park. Just skating a lot and trying to stay healthy."

To better prepare for an event, Perkins says that she tries to follow her typical routine.

Say Perkins: "Not all skaters do this, but it's something that I have found works best for me. Before an event, I kind of set goals for myself. I'll be like, 'Ok, I'm going to learn this trick,' because you never know what the course is going to look like until you get there. So you kinda just skate parks and get the trick that you are working on down, so when you are on a different kind of ramp or something, you can try it on that and get that down also. Each trick you can say is different in a way, compared to how the ramp is built, like if it's harder or easier."